The pace of income tax and value added tax (VAT) collection in July of this fiscal year was slow, but the overall revenue collection increased by around 16% due to almost 38% growth in customs duty collection that month.
Economists said a hike in the prices of imported goods and inflation were the main reasons behind the increase in year-on-year revenue collection in July.
Besides, the import of some products – mainly commercial products with high tariffs – increased slightly in July, said the National Board of Revenue (NBR) officials.
They said customs duty collection increased significantly because many importers were waiting without taking delivery of imported goods to see what happens in the month of budget declaration.
As those goods were cleared in July, revenue for them was collected in that month.
There was a negative growth in customs duty collection in July of FY22. As a result, the growth rate appears higher in the same month of the current fiscal year, compared to the last one.
About Tk31,000 crore has to be collected every month on an average to meet the target of Tk370,000 crore revenue in FY23.
According to sources, the NBR is looking for reasons behind zero growth in income tax collection in July this year.
According to NBR data, the growth in revenue collection was 4% in July of FY22. In that month, there was a negative growth of 2% in customs duty, 1.37% growth in VAT and 15% growth in income tax collection.